'The Darkest England Gazette' Digital Collection

Scope and Content

The Darkest England Gazette Digital Collection is a project to digitise, index and interpret The Salvation Army's short-lived weekly newspaper The Darkest England Gazette (1893-1894) in order to make it available as a fully open access online resource. All 51 issues of the periodical have now been digitised and a growing selection is available online. Issues not yet available online can be accessed by contacting the Salvation Army International Heritage Centre . The Digital Collection also includes a series of research guides that offer brief introductions to prominent themes from the Gazette .

Administrative / Biographical History

The Darkest England Gazette , subtitled 'The Official Newspaper of the Social Operations of The Salvation Army', was a 12-page weekly periodical published in Clerkenwell, London, and priced at one penny. It ran from 1 July 1893 to 16 June 1894, after which it continued under the new name The Social Gazette . The Social Gazette soon adopted a smaller, cheaper 4-page format, and it continued to be published in this form until 1917.

The purpose of The Darkest England Gazette was to report on The Salvation Army's social work as set out by General William Booth, the founder of the organisation, in his 1890 book In Darkest England and the Way Out . Practical social engagement and offering support to people in need had been an important part of The Salvation Army's mission since its inception, but following In Darkest England the many diverse aspects of its social work were centralised under the name 'the Darkest England Scheme'.

Note

This is a description of an online resource . Online Resources are websites that describe, interpret and provide access to archives. They often provide access to digital content but they may also describe physical materials. They usually cover a theme or topic, such as an individual, a movement, or an important historical event.